Cliffy B: Epic Always Intended to Keep GoW 360-Exclusive

People love to consider the possibility that a longtime AAA platform-exclusive will, someday, through some coup or sexy business dealing, become available on a competing platform. It’s exciting.

But that’s not something Cliff Bleszinski ever really considered with the Gears of War franchise, apparently. In an interview I attended at E3, Bleszinski explained his reasoning for purposefully building the franchise as an Xbox 360-exclusive.

Was it always your objective to partner with Microsft exclusively?
Cliff Bleszinski: “It was our objective. One thing I’ve learned in the history of Epic and our alliance with a corporate behemoth partner: whoever manages to provide a reason to buy that device, usually wins. You look at Unreal Tournament and Unreal, they were driving 3D accelerator cards, with 3D effects and all that. If you look at Gears of War and selling Xbox 360s, or Infinity Blade and iOS. It goes back to Myst. Myst was the game you bought to show your wife why you bought the CD rom. That was absolutely the plan, and by partnering with Microsoft and having a very good relationship with them, we’re sitting here with a gigantic Marcus statue right over there, giant banners everywhere with a lot of marketing dollars behind them because it helps sell the Xbox 360.”

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